How to Create a Simple Height Chart

When I was growing up my parents had an area in the laundry room where they recorded the height of my sisters and me by measuring and then marking our height and the date on the wall. I always looked forward to getting measured, and as the years went on it was fun to refer to the chart and see how much we had grown. The one problem was that it wasn’t mobile and if we had ended up moving the original markings would have been lost. Also let’s face it: It made a mess of the wall.

My wife and I wanted to do something similar for our daughter. I didn’t want to make markings directly on the wall so the solution was to create the height chart on a piece of wood that could be removed if we ever decided to move.

This was the easiest project for my daughter that I have done so far, the other two were the Toy Box and the Toddler Table. Check those out too if you have some time.

Close up of chamfer edge of wooden height chart.

I started with what was really a piece of scrap wood: A 1×3″ 3 foot long pine board. First I used my router with a chamfer bit to make a nice, smooth angled edge.

Notches cut every 6 inches with my router.

Next I again used my router with a 11 degree bit to cut notches every 6 inches, shorter notches to designate a 6 inch mark and a longer notch for a 12 inch mark.

After painting notches with black spray ink.

After I cut the notches, I painted the notches black with spray ink. Note that I did not worry about the area surrounding the notches, the excess paint is cleaned up in the next step.

After sanding with my random orbital sander, the black notches stand out very well.

To clean up the black painted area around the notches, but keep the notches themselves black, I sanded the whole board with my random orbital sander. This makes a nice smooth surface and removes the excess paint.

After painting the height chart pink.

The last step was to paint the board. I used minimal paint with a light touch around the notches; this kept unwanted color out of the groove.

Finally I mounted the board on the wall. The easiest and cleanest way to do this was to use Command Strip picture frame hangers, which uses Velcro to fasten the back side of the board to the wall. I mounted the board 2 feet above the floor, so then I can just measure up from the bottom of the board when I’m taking measurements.

Height Chart – Final Product Hanging On Wall

Give it a shot, it’s a quick an easy project that will add value for years to come. It can be as simple or fancy as you want. I had thought about adding the height at each notch (i.e. 2.5 feet, 3 feet, 3.5 feet, etc.) either by carving them or with stencils. In the end I decided to keep it simple.

In case you’re wondering, here are the router bits I used:

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links through Amazon Associates, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small sum of money. This small sum of money is generally enough to buy coffee or a doughnut. Hey, it’s still a doughnut!The links below are affiliate links.

My name is Paul and I am The Unexpected Dad.My wife and I married late in life and we didn’t really expect to have children (thus the title of my blog). We weren’t opposed to the idea of having children, but just assumed that it was not in the cards for us.

I write about the rather unexpected journey of fatherhood, please join me!